Christmas is certainly the best opportunity to offer products with exclusive packaging and limited editions! In fact, Christmas packaging helps the brand to connect -on an emotional level- with its customers, to give an affectionate and jolly message while at the same time strengthening the brand image.
Until a few years ago, Christmas packaging was the exclusive choice of the big brands. Creating limited editions for short runs was in fact very expensive with traditional printing. For example, Coca-Cola, a brand that has always linked its image to Christmas, has been offering Christmas editions of its now iconic bottle for years.
Today digital printing - the technology we use at Packstyle - has changed everything. It is now possible to print short runs of packaging cost effectively… small companies and local brands can thus create Christmas limited editions of just 50 pieces without problems, taking all the advantages!
Why is Christmas packaging a good thing?
Seasonal and targeted packaging are often a great marketing tool. A Christmas limited edition speaks directly to the consumer, it is an opportunity to get people talking about your product on social media and increases the chances of ending up in the Christmas shop windows!
Here are the advantages of a seasonal, limited edition packaging:
From cosmetics to food, with a little creativity through the packaging you can reinterpret your Christmas with welcoming, ironic, retro or original tones. Let's see how big and small brands have done it.
The best Christmas limited editions of large, medium and small brands
Nutella
Image: nutella.com
In 2018 Ferrero chooses to invest in the Christmas-themed communication of its flagship brand, also through packaging. Cute Christmas images appeared on the famous Nutella jars communicating joy and the desire to stay together. Some details of the illustration suggested recipes made with hazelnut cream.
NIVEA
Image: Behance
For some years now, another iconic packaging - the NIVEA cream pot - has appeared on the shelves at Christmas as a limited edition. Illustrations with Christmas characters - such as a polar bear and a penguin - are used very effectively and communicate a festive, warm and comfortable feeling.
Stephen's Gourmet is a US brand of high quality soluble cocoa. The birth of the brand is in some way linked to Christmas: in fact, in a far Christmas in the Eighties, the owner tried different chocolate recipes, giving excellent results to the neighbours. For some years now, the Christmas editions of some of the company's products have been using Christmas illustration and packaging to share with consumers.
ILLY
In Christmas 2020, the Italian company Illycaffè releases a particular limited edition with a Christmas theme. Continuing the collaboration with the designer Olimpia Zagnoli, Illy designed different packaging decorated with the classic Christmas symbols: the star and the tree. The boxes thus become perfect products for a gift.
Digital printing and multigraphic option: the technologies that make limited editions possible in short runs
As we have seen, now even small brands can take advantage of the seasonal and Christmas packaging. Indeed, thanks to digital printing, print short runs - even just 50 pieces of packaging! is now possible at very competitive prices.
With digital printing, the image is computer processed and printed on the surface without building a metal matrix: without the matrix, the printing job is easier to organise and the start up costs are reduced.The quality, of course, is the same of the traditional printing which is still advantageous for higher runs.
Finally, with the multigraphic option it is possible to print an unlimited number of graphics on a packaging of the same size and material: the ideal solution to create different Christmas packaging - for example with different characters - stimulating the consumer's imagination and, why not, the desire to collect all your packages!
If you feel inspired to create a limited and Christmas edition of your packaging, take a look at our ideas and tips for a Christmas packaging!